As the new year begins, virtual assistants who own and operate their own business or who are working as an independent contractor will  need to work on organizing receipts and tax-related expenses. 

• Did you keep records of your expenses from 2013?
• Do you have your expenses organized?

If you are having trouble answering either one of the questions above, do not worry…here are a few tips and tricks on helping you get on track for tax time!

Understanding what type of expenses can be applied to your business as a VA, can best be determined by an accountant.  However, here are a few examples of everyday expenses that you should be tracking throughout the year.

• Telephone call made to contact your clients – whether it’s a land-line and/or cell phone
• Internet connection in order to communicate with your clients
• Copier and fax
• Business cards and any marketing material
• Did you use a car  to visit your clients – if you did, expenses such as gas can be included as an expense.  Track y
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It is hard to believe that December is here and we will be welcoming in the New Year very soon.  Many of your clients still have things they need to do before changing the calendar to 2014 that can be outsourced to a virtual assistant.

Here are 5 things you can do to help with the end of the year push.

1. Communicate!  This is a busy month, and time is flying by.  Be sure and reach out to your client by email, phone, or Skype to remind them that you can help wrap up administrative tasks.
2. Website Review. Offer to make sure all information on their website is updated with new business testimonials and photos, so that the website is refreshed and ready for visitors in the new year.
3. Organize Emails.  Many of your clients would really appreciate starting 2014 with an inbox that isn’t cluttered.  Offer to create or purge both their active or reference-only emails.  With a little guidance from your client, this can be a great project to help them with.
4. Follow-Up Help. The end of the year
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This is a great time of the year to offer virtual assistant services that are geared specifically towards the holidays.

A busy executive may not know that a virtual assistant can:

• book their holiday travel
• brainstorm gift ideas and find the best prices
• create digital photobooks
• order and mail holiday cards
• help with marketing holiday promotions
• handle emails and/or phone calls while they are away

Remember, the status quo is not always the best way to retain or attract customers.  Being a virtual assistant allows you a lot of flexibility and creativity in the kind of services you can provide to your clients. Take advantage of this busy time of the year and realize that most business owners can use an extra hand with a task that is holiday related.

Your goal should be to help your client have a stress-free holiday so that they will not think twice about referring more work to you throughout the coming year.

It’s never easy being a mom trying to juggle a work at home job with a family life.  15 years ago, most people never even heard the acronym WAHM (work-at-home mom).  Women usually had to make the decision to stay at their 9am-5pm job and find childcare or become a stay at home mom without any additional income.
Luckily, a question today’s Moms can ask is “What kind of work can I do from home?  According to parenting.com the desire for family flexibility is the number-one reason most Moms want to work from home.
Working as a virtual assistant (VA) is a great option for today’s WAHM.  Having an administrative, marketing or accounting background is very beneficial to the current demand for virtual assistance.  However, there are many other professional skills that can be done virtually.  Working as a home-based VA can be a very rewarding and profitable venture when considered thoroughly and executed strategically.

So what will help you become a successful WAHM?

• A Great Attitude and F...

We are so excited to have Brandy Nasi of ECO Virtual Services be our guest blogger.  We are happy to share a very informative blog she has written about how the environment can benefit from telecommuting and home-based businesses.

As our society’s concern for the environment becomes greater and greater, we are looking for more and more ways to reduce the footprint we leave on this planet. The internet has brought us new and multifaceted ways to not only save time and energy, but also reduce our rate of fuel consumption and pollution. Still, many people believe there are some thing that cannot be cut back. Traveling to work, is one of them. Very few people, even who live in cities, can reasonably walk or bike to their workplace. But the vast technological advancements of the last twenty years makes it possible to reduce and even eliminate the so-called “commuter’s pollution.”

How? Through implementing a telecommuting program. Allowing employees to work from home helps companies fulfil...

Sometimes file sharing is as easy as emailing clients back and forth. When files are too large to email or you want a place for them to “live” online, there are other plenty of options.

Below are some of the more popular file sharing programs that are free or inexpensive. They are easily used on a Mac or PC, and most have apps for handheld devices also.

1. Google Drive allows you to store some of the more popular file types online (word, excel, powerpoint, and mac equivalents) and to share them with whoever you’d like. Since the documents live in Drive and are saved automatically, you know you are always looking at the most recent version. You can also download the documents to your computer.
2. Dropbox is a solution where you can upload files and share the link or folder to someone else to access and download the file. The files can live in the folders as long as you’d like.
3. Box is another similar solution that allows the user to upload files and share the link or folder to someone el
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What do I charge for my services?!?

 This has to be one of the most frequently asked questions by virtual assistants. And unfortunately there is not an easy, straightforward answer. It depends.

A VA’s rate is often dependent on the niche she is serving, her skill and experience level, what she needs to make for income, and what she believes she is worth. This answer leaves a LOT of gray area.

If you like to make decisions from a factual, numbers based approach, the rate calculator here may help: Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator.

You are asked to take 5-20 minutes to enter your personal and business costs, profit goals, hours you want to work, and a few other things, and the calculator gives you an hourly rate to target. It’s a good starting place, especially if you charge by the hour.

I encourage you to use the rate calculator as just one tool. Remember to take into account the other pieces that come into play when making your decision on what to charge – your niche, skill, experi...

A business email is essential.
You want something professional rather than [email protected] or [email protected]. If you don’t have a business name, at least use your name.
Other than your specific domain name address ([email protected]), Gmail is the most popular and professional email these days. Please retire your AOL address – they scream outdated and technologically challenged. Same with hotmail.The challenge with using email addresses that your service provider gives you (Verizon, Cox, Comcast, etc.) is that you lose the address if you ever change services.
A business phone number is ideal, but not always financially possible for VAs when just starting out. A dedicated line for business lets you have a professional voicemail and security that the phone will always be answered in a professional manner.

• If you choose to have your home phone be your business line, here are some tips:
  • Have a professional sounding voicemail greeting
  • Do not let other household
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If you ever coordinate events for clients (or yourself) you need to know about EventBrite. The website allows you to create an event, let people register, sell tickets, and even accept payment online. It’s a fantastic tool that is free (other than the payment portal) and greatly assists in tracking attendance and communicating with attendees via email. Check it out for yourself at EventBrite.

Many virtual assistants struggle with managing their time. Some work all day, and since the office is at home, they can work all night completing projects, looking for new clients, researching virtual tools, using social networking sites… Sometimes this time in front of the computer pays off, but for many, it’s time spent without much to show for it.

Others find that their focus is pulled in other directions. Laundry needs to get done, they don’t want to miss Oprah, they spend an hour talking with the neighbor who was outside walking the dog… Next thing they know, the day is almost over and little work was done to grow their business or assist their clients to the best of their ability.

If you have difficulty with time management, chunk your day. Schedule your day so you complete what is needed. If you need to spend time following up with new business leads, schedule it on your calendar for an hour chunk. Need to complete a project for one of your clients? Add a 90 minute chunk to yo...